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Nor let us forget those wonderful idealizations of awakening thought and primitive societies, the pictures of other races and types of life removed from our own: all those primeval legends, ballads, songs, and tales, those proverbs, apologs, and maxims, which have come down to us from distant ages of man's history the old idylls and myths of the Hebrew race; the tales of Greece, of the Middle Ages of the East; the fables of the Old and the New World; the songs of the Nibelungs; the romances of early feudalism; the "Morte d'Arthur"; the "Arabian Nights"; the ballads of the early nations of Europe.
He that doeth these things shall never be moved." Proverbs 28:8: "He that augmenteth his substance by interest and increase, gathereth it for him that hath pity on the poor." Jeremiah 15:10: "I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them doth curse me." King James reads: "I have neither lent upon usury, nor have men lent to me upon usury."
I was in the markets just now, talking to a seller of nuts, so as to get hold of the raw material, and now I am about to meet one of the greatest scientific men in France, to get at the quintessence of that commodity. Proverbs are no fools; extremes meet. Now see, my boy, commerce is the intermediary between the productions of the vegetable kingdom and science.
"You tried to kiss me." I glanced round. The coachman had begun to undress again, and it was very dark. "That was a long time ago," I said wistfully. "Once bitten, twice shy," she said. As I kissed her, the light went up in the hall. "Put not your faith in proverbs," said I. Dr. Fletcher opened the door. "Hullo," said the worthy leech. "Bring forth your dead," said I. He laughed heartily.
His wisdom, the Scriptures testify, was greater than the wisdom of Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the three sons of Mahol. This means that he was wiser than Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and the generation of the desert. He excelled even Adam. His proverbs which have come down to us are barely eight hundred in number.
Others are not interesting and many of their stories are too bad to repeat. Even some of their proverbs bear the mark of their topsy-turvy religion and are only half true. Judge them for yourself. Here are fifty examples; which do you think is the best proverb among them? Are they all good? First seek your neighbour, then build your house. First get a companion, then go on the road.
'Only make yourself honey and the flies will suck you; 'as much as thou hast so much art thou worth, as my grandmother used to say; and 'thou canst have no revenge of a man of substance." "Oh, God's curse upon thee, Sancho!" here exclaimed Don Quixote; "sixty thousand devils fly away with thee and thy proverbs!
"Likewise, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "thou must not mingle such a quantity of proverbs in thy discourse as thou dost; for though proverbs are short maxims, thou dost drag them in so often by the head and shoulders that they savour more of nonsense than of maxims."
... There is no example of modesty, restraint, thrift, duty, or culture. Everything is sensual and ostentatious, and shamefacedly sensual and ostentatious. ... It is a grievous thing to corrupt the minds of the simple. The poor have always believed in heartiness and cheerfulness. All their proverbs spring out of a keen sense of virtue. All their games are of a manly character.
Picnics under the trees were considerably in vogue; and, within doors, fragmentary bits of theatrical performance, such as single acts of tragedy or comedy, or dramatic proverbs and charades.